My Gold Rush Career Begins in 1984

Chapter 199 Motorcycle Acquired

By May, all seventeen mining sites had been transferred.

There are more than forty teams of all sizes in the entire Haxionggou River Valley, distributed along a 3,000-meter stretch of the river where placer gold is concentrated.

Zhou Jingming's life became more regular. Every day, he would watch the sluice wash the ore, collect the felt to dry, and when everyone else rested in the evening, he would take the felt to burn and then refine the gold.

As for purchasing supplies, Li Guozhu would drive the tractor, and during his weekly rest days, he would usually take care of the purchases for those who wanted to go to Timbuk for fun.

Besides the demand for grains, vegetables, and various meats, felt became the biggest consumable item each month.

As promised, Zhou Jingming distributed the wages and the gold due to everyone on the first day.

As expected, the monthly expenses were around 110,000 yuan, but at the end of the month, Zhou Jingming actually received more than one kilogram less gold than expected, only 13,200 grams.

The main reason is that there were two more snowfalls during this period, which caused a few days of delay, and there was no income during those days.

If mining proceeds normally, he could very likely harvest more than sixteen kilograms of gold in a month.

On the same day that wages were paid, more than a dozen people carrying supplies arrived at the Haxionggou mine. Zhou Jingming recognized two of them.

The leader was a young man in his thirties, wearing a jacket, jeans, and sunglasses.

At first, Zhou Jingming didn't recognize him. Only after taking off his sunglasses did he realize that it was an acquaintance he knew from his past life, the Boss Jin he used to work for—Chen Qinglin.

As for the other one who looked a bit chubby, Zhou Jingming also knew him.

He is Chen Qingwen, a cousin of Chen Qinglin.

Since Chen Qinglin started panning for gold, he had been following Chen Qinglin. Because he always made a profit every time he burned felt to extract gold, he was "appointed" by Chen Qinglin as the felt burner, specifically responsible for burning felt.

Later, after Chen Qinglin made his fortune, he became a gold boss and lived in the county town of Dole BEJ. He was also responsible for sending the gold he harvested every half month to Chen Qinglin.

However, although they knew each other in their past lives, Chen Qinglin and Chen Qingwen had no idea who Zhou Jingming was now.

They were using the passage to go upstream, and when they passed through the pincer-shaped mountain pass, they made a point of saying hello.

Inquiring about mining sites has always been a taboo for gold prospecting teams.

Seeing so many people at the mine, Chen Qinglin merely glanced at them without asking any questions, and led them upstream.

Judging from their appearance, they must be just starting out in the gold mining business, otherwise there wouldn't be only a few of them.

Compared to his previous life, Zhou Jingming, who started his gold rush career five years earlier, has quietly surpassed Chen Qinglin.

Although it was just a small incident, Zhou Jingming paid a lot of attention to him.

Chen Qinglin must have had some unique skills to become a wealthy and successful businessman in his past life.

On the third day after they entered the valley, news came that Chen Qinglin, along with a dozen or so men, had seized a mining site.

That group consisted of more than ten people, but ultimately they paid the price of two dead and three injured, and had to abandon the small mining site and withdraw from Haxionggou.

Chen Qinglin and his men set up camp in the valley.

They were sensible enough not to touch the mining sites where Zhou Jingming had not yet received the transfer fee.

During their rest day, Li Guozhu led a few people to Tiemaike to buy supplies and relax. When they returned the next day, he brought back a message to Zhou Jingming: Sun Huaian said that the motorcycle issue was progressing well.

This is good news for Zhou Jingming.

The next morning, he couldn't wait to drive his tractor again, carrying two kilograms of gold, and called Wu Yang to head to Tiemaike.

Seeing Zhou Jingming go out, Su Xiulan also wanted to go, saying she wanted to buy some women's products.

Once this was mentioned, Zhou Jingming roughly guessed what she wanted to buy.

Since entering the mountains, Su Xiulan hadn't gone out for quite some time. Seeing that the weather was getting hotter and hotter, she was still wrapped in her two sets of thick cotton clothes. Zhou Jingming thought about it and agreed to let her go with him so he could pick out a couple of suitable outfits for her.

He handed Jin Wang over to Old Man Liu to lead the way, and then drove the tractor, taking Wu Yang and Su Xiulan on a trip to Tiemaike.

They arrived around 5 p.m. While there was still time, Zhou Jingming first drove the tractor to town to buy a batch of felt, and then took Su Xiulan to the supply and marketing cooperative to pick out two sets of Dacron clothing.

As for the things women use privately, let Su Xiulan buy them herself.

By the time all the tasks were finished, it was nearly evening.

After settling Su Xiulan into the inn, Zhou Jingming parked the tractor in the inn's courtyard before calling Wu Yang to go to the edge of town to find Sun Huai'an.

Sun Huai'an must have made special arrangements beforehand. The sentries patrolling the hideout led Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang directly to Sun Huai'an's residence as soon as they saw them.

It was a two-story mud-brick flat-roofed house.

The house looked unremarkable at first glance, but once inside, it was decorated in a lavish style. The walls were smooth, the floor was covered with exquisite wool carpets, and there were many decorations, including numerous utensils inlaid with gold and silver.

Sun Huai'an welcomed the two men into the house and invited them to sit on the European-style sofa. After taking his seat in the main seat, he handed each of them a cigar: "It's been quite a while, brother. Have you forgotten about me? You haven't even come to see me, not even about the motorcycle."

Zhou Jingming also put the two kilograms of gold he brought directly on the table: "I'm here now, aren't I?"

Looking at the two kilograms of gold, Sun Huai'an joked with a smile, "You're not going to give me any trouble this time?"

"Since it's our first meeting and we don't know each other well, we should be careful. As for now, I believe you won't make things difficult for me for the sake of our long-term plans, and the amount isn't that much, so I'm quite at ease."

Zhou Jingming spoke the truth.

Sun Huai'an took the gold in the oil paper bag in his hand and weighed it: "With so many people, you've only managed to get this little bit in over a month?"

“Indeed, we didn’t bring all of it. If we brought too much, we might encounter some unexpected problems, right? Actually, I think the best way to collect gold is to go into the mountains to collect it. That way, everyone will feel more at ease.”

"It's not that I haven't thought about it, but the main problem is that with all this business I'm doing, there are always people watching me from above. Damn it, I can't do many things freely... By the way, I have some news for you. I just heard it today. The Qingshan team is going to start going into the mountains again soon, probably around the 8th."

"With so many of you, it's difficult to evacuate the mine site. It's best to make arrangements in advance."

"Thanks for letting me know... Since you told me this, I won't ask for the price of 48 yuan per gram as previously mentioned. Just give me the market price!"

Upon hearing this, Sun Huai'an immediately laughed: "I like people like you!"

The current price is 48 yuan per gram, which is the highest price. In May, gold from gold prospectors began to flow into the underground market, and the price of gold dropped significantly to about 42 yuan per gram.

If it's six yuan less per gram, then two kilograms would cost twelve thousand yuan, which is no small sum.

Sun Huai'an took out the clumps of gold from the bag, examined them, and immediately weighed them on a small scale.

Zhou Jingming had already weighed it; it was two kilograms, so there was naturally no problem.

After confirming that everything was correct, Sun Huai'an immediately took out 84,000 yuan and handed it to Zhou Jingming: "The motorcycle has been brought over, it's the same as mine, just give me 12,000 yuan!"

Zhou Jingming counted out 12,000 yuan of the money he had just received and gave it to him: "By the way, besides the motorcycle, there's another thing I wanted to ask you this time. Can you get a water pump here?"

Actually, this thing is mainly bought from state-owned stores, which requires complicated procedures. Zhou Jingming was too lazy to go through the hassle. If he could get it through Sun Huai'an, it would save him a lot of trouble.

"Water pumps are readily available... Last year, some wealthy foremen who struck gold came to me asking about them, so I prepared a few."

I want two!

"Heh, so you've added more people again."

"Yes, some more have been added."

"Jincheng's diesel engines cost 2,600 yuan each. You can give me 5,000 yuan for two."

So Zhou Jingming happily counted out another five thousand yuan.

The two chatted briefly, and then Sun Huai'an led Zhou Jingming to see the diesel engine and the motorcycle.

They agreed that Zhou Jingming would come to pick up the diesel engine the next day, and he rode away on his motorcycle that very night.

Sun Huai'an expressed some doubt: "Not many people can come into contact with this thing. It's not like riding a bicycle. Do you even know how to ride one?"

"Why would I buy it if I can't ride it?"

Zhou Jingming immediately hopped on the Suzuki motorcycle, started it, and after a little practice, rode it very fast. After circling around twice, he was very satisfied with the performance of the red motorcycle, especially the sound of the engine, which sounded very pleasant.

He went back to Sun Huai'an, filled up the gas tank, and then led Wu Yang away.

After returning to the hostel, Zhou Jingming locked the motorcycle, then called Su Xiulan down, and together they went to a restaurant for a meal. After returning to the hostel, they went to bed early.

Early the next morning, Zhou Jingming and Wu Yang drove a tractor to Sun Huaian's hideout, installed two diesel engines, and got twenty liters of gasoline. Then they drove the tractor to town to buy some water pipes for the water pump, and handed the tractor to Wu Yang to drive first.

He led Su Xiulan to the hotel, picked up the motorcycle, and rode back to Haxionggou.

Su Xiulan had never seen anything faster than a train. At first, she was terrified, but after she steadied herself by holding onto Zhou Jingming's waist, she gradually got used to it and began to enjoy the feeling of riding a motorcycle at high speed. It was much more comfortable than squatting in the back of a tractor.

Zhou Jingming deliberately teased her by suddenly slowing down when he was riding the bike very fast.

Due to inertia, Su Xiulan bumped into Zhou Jingming's back repeatedly.

At first, I didn't think anything of it, just that the road was bad and I had to slow down.

But after it happened a few times, she realized that Zhou Jingming was doing it on purpose. She couldn't help but playfully punch him on the back a few times, saying, "You're so mean!"

(End of this chapter)